‘If you just produce to a style and a format then the robots will have an even easier time replicate our art and expression’
Mechtropolis: the name itself is enough to transport you: cold, mechanised, futuristic, a machine-based absolutism. Or maybe power that has been willingly handed over to machines. Either way, machines don’t sleep. Speaking of which…
Hi MachineCode. Do you ever actually sleep? I have this image of you never stopping on beats. Pausing for some form of snack then soldiering on…
Dean: Yeah I can’t say sleep has been a good friend of mine to be honest. Still, you do have a few more hours in the day to most: good for topping up your studio tan. Curry generally brings the beats to a halt.
Tim: Well, I’m probably not telling you anything new when I say that I’m very quick and focussed in music making. And that goes for the MachineCode project too.
Having Dean creating some great content for tune ideas, melodies, lines now using his latest modular toys… it’s very often only a matter of a day that we finish a tune. You can figure what that means for a weekly MachineCode meeting…
I have to second the curry part as well!
When did the concept of Mechtropolis come about? I’m assuming that, by the alteration of the word from ‘Metropolis’, the place you have in mind is more mechanical/biomechanical? is this how you see humanity devolving… a slave race to its inventions?
If we are to paint a picture of ‘Mechtropolis’ I think we are on the dawn of a new era of mechanical supremacy.
The tipping point if you like of our undoing.
Creating bigger and more intelligent fighting machines to protect us from the threats that we have created and to guard those that have created them. The average human being is nothing more than a self-indulgent solider of vanity. Leaving the powers that be free to play god with tenterhooks over a race that is blinded by its own indulgence.
At the foot: There is a robot army of self-taught hybrid biomechanical levellers ready to bring (Hack) their awakening to a new force of awe inspiring Mechs. The freedom of the Titanium Sons, our evolutionary successor is poised.
Ready in the wings, ‘Mechtropolis rises, freeing them from the torment of the human condition’.
What of a sort/film/games/visuals of this type of theme do you dig? Even film soundtracks.
There are some classic film scores that you can never get away from, Ghost in the Shell, Event Horizon, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Forbidden Planet and so on. György Ligeti is somebody that Tim often played me and it was no surprise that he also featured in many of the films that I like. Genius.
As for modern films, Interstellar was pretty intense in the kino and a sound track we both liked of late was from the film It Follows.
So to the sampler: it has a vibe of its own: it’s not just a taster for the album I feel… would you agree?
I actually would say it is a taster meaning that people shouldn’t think of it as the ‘extract of the best tunes’. The sampler shows the range and variety of the album. Our goal wasn’t to collect a number of “F” or “G” based Neuro tunes.
We wanted to do what we always do: to show what Machine Code musically is all about and have a collection of unique tunes that can’t be replaced by one another.
I mentioned soldiering it before and on the topic I see D&B trooper Coppa here on ‘Submerged’, how did you guys link and do you have history on the live front? I love this tune!
Coppa is a good friend.
We’ve been following each other around the cities of Europe for some time now. We have worked with him for many years now on all sorts of projects.
Whether it was with Underhill our own projects or as MachineCode. He’s always on point and in my opinion does not always get the credit he deserves lyrically…
He does so many tracks and always bring something new to the table. As I think you will hear on the album. We’ve been talking about doing a MachineCode & Coppa live show, if we find more time in the days between us then I’m sure we’ll give it a whirl.
Take us into ‘Test Run’… why the title I have to ask?
I’ll try and make this as interesting as it can be ha ha, but its pretty mundane really.
It was the introduction of a new bit of kit to the MachineCode studio – Make Noise Dpo. And many of the sounds were recorded out into a project that was originally named ‘Test Run’. Not that exciting for the reader but allot of fun for us.
Back to technology/inventions… what’s something you’d love to see invented. We once discussed a DIY deathstar, from memory. Could be a space elevator, moon mining – like the film, Moon; vertical inner city megafarms, full scale Funktion 1 micro PA rigs that stow in your EasyJet luggage… ?
All of the above would defiantly be welcome. Especially the Funktion One micro rig… Would def help for when you turn up to that gig and their system has been tuned for Minimal techno…
On a totally selfish level as I’m getting older and bending over with my bad back and knees some of those self lacing Nike boots from back to the future wouldn’t go a miss theses days! Not like the ones they brought out recently were you still have to bend over and press a button…
Ones that adjust to what you are doing… Not that sitting in the studio drinking coffee really warrants such.
Maybe teleportation is a better ask. Then I wouldn’t have to do the flights of stairs up to the roof of the studio building.
Can we have a sneak peek in to the full scale album?
You better ask the boss, Jade.
I think like the albums that we have done before there is something for every subhead, whether it’s a banging roller a deep builder like speaker or a chunky mech style stomper.
We don’t feel like it’s a collection of singles to make up an album, Not that there is anything wrong with that as such, but I do feel that there is an atmosphere captured through out Mechtropolis reflecting were MachineCode was at the time.
We are – as a race – so used to being hammered by amazing D&B now but you guys keep it unpredictable… what keeps you in love with D&B?
It’s not hard too keep ya love for a scene that is always evolving with in its self, there is always somebody bringing something fresh and new to the table that blows you away. D&B is always looking for the new not resting on its laurels…
As for MachinceCode I think will it will always be unpredictable as we never set out to be one thing or another: what comes out from a session is what comes out as long as we feel it that’s all that matters.
If you just produce to a style and a format then the robots will have an even easier time replicate our art and expression.
Coppa pic: Alex Whelan